Drug Smuggling Consultant
by alexvause
Summary: Completely AU. Piper Chapman was a detective with straight principles, until Alex Vause, a drug dealer who made a deal with the government, showed up as a consultant on her current case and turned her life upside-down. Inspired both by Castle and White Collar.
1. Chapter 1

Piper Chapman woke up at 6 a.m. as usual, turned off the alarm clock, stood up from the bed rubbing her sleepy eyes and headed to the shower. She just stood there relaxed under the cold water. Some people might think that it's weird to enjoy the cold shower, but it always made Piper more alive, she didn't know why.

She had been working in NYPD for almost 8 years and 5 years as a homicide detective. She had always dreamed to become a detective. She had worked really hard to deserve a promotion and she was on seventh heaven when it happened. So for the past few years her life was a pure perfection. She was so into work that she hardly had a personal life, she just hadn't enough time for that and it was okay for Piper.

She stepped out of the shower wondering what this day would bring her: another unidentified body or maybe kidnapping. She loved her job, she loved helping people. Piper desperately wanted to give people their last hope, to show them there was still justice in this world. Piper was having a cup of coffee when her phone rang.

"Detective Chapman. Okay, I'll be there in 20 minutes."

It was only 7 a.m. and there was already a new body. This world is so strange and violent. Piper suppressed depressing thoughts, put on her clothes quickly and left the apartment. She arrived at the place even faster than she thought. She left her car and made her way to the crime scene where her colleagues were busy making photos of victim and interrogating people who had found the body.

"Hey, Chapman", Piper was greeted by one of her partners, detective Nichols.

"Hey, Nicky. What have we got here?"

"Male, Caucasian, two shots in the chest, long distance, which leads us to the suggestion that the killer is a professional."

"Where the hell is Bennett?"

"Look to the left, running to you like he burned his ass."

"Chapman", Piper heard her second partner's voice. "We've got an ID, name Tom Raymond, 35. It's definitely not a robbery as he still has got his wallet on him."

"Any information on the caliber?"

"Not yet, but it looks like our killer used a silencer as no one heard the gun shots."

"I'm going to talk to Polly about the time of death, I'll meet you at the station, guys. Try to work something out till that time."

Piper approached her best friend a.k.a. pathologist who was leaning over the body.

"Hey."

"Good morning, sweetie."

"Have something for me?"

"Well, the time of death is between 3 and 4 a.m. That's all I can tell you so far, I learn more as soon as I'll get to the laboratory."

"Alright, I think I'm going to the station now then. Meet you there?"

"Of course, I give you a call when I'll know something new."

Piper sat in her car and made her way to the precinct. It was going to be a long day, the first days of a new case were always the longest ones. She entered the precinct and went up on the fifth floor where her office was situated. Nichols and Bennett were looking through some files and making calls.

"Any information on our vic?" Piper asked not really hoping to hear a positive answer.

"Actually, yes", Nikki answered. "Listen to that, seems like this case can be an interesting one. Tom Raymond was… any guesses?"

"Nichols, for God's sake."

"What? We can even make a bet."

"Bennett?" Piper asked the other detective impatiently. She loved Nikki and how she could light up the worst situations with her jokes, she just wasn't in the mood for that.

"Well, our victim was working for the International Drug Cartel for the past 10 years. He was more a pawn than some important person in such a business. No previous convictions though, only few charges, but nothing special. No family, no girlfriend, no leads to his bosses, nothing at all to be truthful."

"You two are lame", Nikki said.

"Shit", Piper cursed. She hated when there were no leads and she hated drug dealers. "Give me something, guys."

"Don't worry, boss", Nichols laughed. "We've found a cell phone in his jacket, running trough the calls now, maybe we'll find something."

"Thank, God. I was starting to think that it was a dead end."

"Come on, it's us, team Chapman. We'll always find something."

"You continue with calls, I'll try to know something from FBI on him. I have doubts they'll gladly share the information with us, but we need to try at least."

FBI as she expected wasn't very helpful. All they said was he wasn't under witness' protection and that they had never heard of him. She was starting to feel desperate.

"Guys, do we have his address, anything?"

"Not yet. He didn't definitely live in NY, maybe he stayed in a hotel, we didn't figure it out yet."

"What about calls?"

"Nothing unusual so far, except maybe…"

"What?"

"He had received about 5 calls last few days from the same unknown number."

"That's something, trace it, Bennett."

"On it. Won't take more than 5 minutes. Yes, I've got it. Name Alex Vause, female, lives here, in NY. Was charged for carrying drug money few years ago, but steered clear as there wasn't enough evidence."

"Alex Vause?" Nikki asked, "I know that case. She's working for IDC as well, but, as Bennett said, she left no trace. She isn't surely just a pawn."

"Bring her in. We need to have a little chat."

They brought woman after an hour, it wasn't like she was hiding or something. Nichols and Bennett led her to the interrogation room.

"Want us to question her?" Nikki asked as they closed the door with Vause in the room.

"No, she's mine, thanks."

Piper cleared her mind, looked through woman's case one more time and entered the room. Alex was vey good looking, she had dark hair and magnificent deep eyes. Piper thought to herself that if she weren't a criminal, she would definitely fall for her. But she was connected with drugs and she could be their killer.

"So, Ms. Vause. How do you know Mr. Raymond?"

"What, Tom? We used to go in the same college."

"Very interesting. He's about 5 years older than you. And I thought old college friends know each others numbers, but yours is unknown on his list of contacts"

"What can I say? I liked to make friends with older people and it's nothing strange in having a new number."

Alex Vause was very confident, it was clear that she had been interrogated many times before and knew what to say. She smiled at detective licking her bottom lip.

"What is it, anyway?"

"He was killed, Ms. Vause."

"Fuck", Alex put off the glasses she was wearing and rubbed her eyes.

"Where were you last night about 3 and 4 a.m.?"

"What? Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"I was at home. Sleeping. That's what people do at nights, right, cutie face?"

Piper looked Alex straight in the eyes.

"Got someone who can confirm it?"

"Sure, the girl I was with, here, she left me her number." Alex took a piece of paper from the pocket of her jacket with a phone number on it.

"So, if you're not going to press charges, I'd like to go now", Alex stood up from her seat. "Except, you don't want to leave me your phone number. I'd really like that", she chuckled.

Piper started to lose her patience. The woman was charming as hell, but she drove her crazy by such behavior. And she was certainly involved in that case somehow. Christ, she was a drug dealer who was slipping away again!

"Listen to me carefully. I work there long enough to know how to deal with people like you. I know who you are. Well, almost everyone who familiar with your case knows what do you do for life. And if they can't find the evidence, I can. I'll find everything on you, I'll bring you back there and put you in the prison, suck all the information dry from you before that. I swear."

"So passionate, so intensive. You need to get laid, detective", she smiled widely at Piper and left the room.

"Fuck!" Piper swore.

"That was hell of a chat!" Nicky said to her as Piper left the room.

"She knows something."

"Of course she does. She's like one of the richest drug dealers ever. We just don't know how to get closer to her. Maybe you should give her your number."

"Shut it. I'll try to figure something out. There's no way she left no trace after her. If she carried the money once, she made a mistake somewhere."

"Well, there's nothing we can do today anyway, it's almost 10 p.m. You should go home, have a rest."

"Yeah, probably. Till tomorrow, guys."

"Bye."

Piper arrived at home at 10.30 but she had no intentions to sleep. She needed to press this woman against the wall. She felt there was something. Something she wasn't seeing. She looked through hundreds of cases that included drug dealers. Her name popped up in a few foles but there was not enough evidence again. It was almost 2 a.m. when it hit her. Of course, more likely she was an importer who used the mules to transport drugs and money. Of course she was. Piper smiled at herself uncontrollably, now she knew what to do. The next morning she spoke with her chief and asked for help. They worked hard until the very evening, when finally they connected Alex with dozens of cases. She was so in their hands.

Her colleagues brought Alex in the interrogation room again and Piper started to feel victory spreading through her veins. She entered the room with a confident smile.

"So you want to give me your number after all?" Was all Alex said.

"You were arrested for drug dealing, you know that? You're going to prison for God knows how long. I told you, I'd find something."

"I knew you will. And, you see, you can't arrest me. I shouldn't even be there." Alex said not stopping to smile.

Piper was confused. Something was wrong. She started to get nervous when Alex's lawyer and Mr. Caputo, her chief, came in and said he'd settle everything from there.

Piper left the room not knowing what to think about all of that.

She had to wait for eternity until Mr. Caputo and Alex's lawyer left her chiefs office where they shifted after Piper and Alex were interrupted. The three of them shook their hands and Alex left with her lawyer and two officers.

"I have bad news for you and the good ones", Mr. Caputo told approaching her.

"What was that? I don't understand."

"Looks like we weren't aware of some things, DEA should have told us. All that time she was under house arrest until the court will make a decision."

"What decision?"

"I received a call from the judge while you were in interrogation room. The good news is that this case will be cracked soon."

"How's that, sir?"

"And there's the bad news – you're now working with Vause."

Piper's jaw dropped as she heard him saying that. She planned to send this woman to prison, not to work with her. How that was even possible?

Mr. Caputo continued, "She made a deal with the Government, Chapman. She confessed in some of her crimes and gave them information on some drug dealers. Vause was so helpful that they proposed her to work with DEA as a consultant during her sentence instead of going to prison. And of course she agreed."

"Wha…"

"It's not the end of the story. The Governor, a good friend of our precinct, decided that it was a good idea if she would help us with this case. And what do you think? Vause said it would be her pleasure. She added that she would be working only with blondie. Which, I assume, is you. And if you agree, she will be under your full responsibility until the end of the case."

"No way, no, sir. No way!"

"You have to, Chapman. It's was an order. We can't do anything about that."

No fucking way.

**Please, review. I tried really hard, I swear. I know it isn't very logical, but I'm planning to concentrate more on their relationship than on the actual case. Tell me if I should continue this thing, I'm not sure yet.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thank you very much for your reviews! I'm glad you liked it. And thanks to PricelessVause for pointing out my mistakes, I tried to correct some of them, but I'm not sure I succeeded very much. :D I decided to change some parts of the story to make it a little bit more logical. If you didn't read the new version of the chapter 1 and don't want to read it again, here's the main point: Alex actually was working for DEA for some time as a consultant, so after police found out her connection with their current case, the government decided it would be a great idea if she could help NYPD too, so Alex was transferred under Piper's responsibility. That's all that I've changed.**

Piper was sitting at her desk in the office with Vause reading a book by her side.

Piper sighed deeply, "Can you concentrate for a minute at least? Please?"

"I'm concentrated, detective. I'm all yours."

"Then answer my questions, help me!"

"Alright", Alex closed her book, put it on the desk and looked Piper deep in the eyes. Piper shivered. There was something in these eyes, something she couldn't understand, it attracted her… No, she needed to focus.

"I told you already. I didn't know that Tom of yours, he contacted me, said that he's in trouble and that someone gave him my number, our mutual friend. I have no idea what he meant. All those calls I tried to make, were just to convince him I was out of business and he should stop asking for help. He won't listen though, so I tried to be persistent, end of the story. I hadn't heard from him for a week when you brought me here."

"Then what's the point?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why are you here? You're not helping at all!"

"I'm here to keep you company, detective. I don't know. If you want more, we can fuck in the pantry."

Piper rolled her eyes and put her palms over her face.

"Don't be so nervous, Pipes. I still have an amount of contacts, when your guys find something relevant on this Tom, I'll be able to help."

"Don't call me that. Besides, why did you lie about knowing him?"

"I was having fun. You're cute when you're angry."

Piper closed her eyes, calmed herself, "Read your book, Vause, I'll be back soon."

"Don't leave me, this place is so empty without you."

"Then you should start doing something!"

Piper headed to her chief's office, she knocked on the door.

"May I?"

"Chapman. Come in. Something's wrong?"

"Of course! I can't work with her!"

"What, Vause? Piper, you need to stop that. It's just one case. Solve it and you'll be free."

"But she's not helping! She's not connected to the case at all!"

"She's famous among drug dealers, she knows people. Give her something and she'll help, it's not like she's a cop and can do all of our work."

"She's the most irresponsible, selfish, insolent, self-confident person I've ever met in my life!"

"You know her for three days."

"Why are you defending her?"

"I'm not defending her. I'm just saying, we don't know her story and she can help. That's all. Go and try to do your job, Chapman."

Piper was about to argue, but then she understood there was no point. He was right, she just needed to crack this case and everything would be back to normal.

She left Caputo's office and went to her desk. She was quite surprised to see Vause and her partners sitting at their desk laughing at something like they were old friends.

"Nichols, Bennett! Can I talk to your for a minute?"

"Sure", they came up to Piper's desk.

"What was that?"

"What was what?" Nichols answered.

"What were you three doing?"

"We were… working? Oh God, Piper, she's so funny!"

"She kinda is", Bennett assented.

"Are you fucking kidding me?"

"She's helpful, actually. She gave us an idea how to check whether he stayed everywhere or not", Nikki said.

"Yeah, we figured he stayed at two hotels at the same time, which is weird."

"Why is it weird, John?"

"Well, you see, he occupied one room in a 4 star hotel…"

"And one room in some muddy hotel", Nikki finished. "Why he needed a room in some junkie hotel?"

"Clients, I suppose", they heard Vause saying. "It is easier to work this way for guys like him. A good place is for living and junkie place is for working."

"Guys like him?" Piper asked.

"Small fries. It seems like he was working directly with minor clients."

"Minor clients?" Piper asked again.

"People who can't afford large-scale supplies, as you've said, junkies. But it's weird indeed."

"Why?"

"'Cause people like him are usually attached to a definite district and they aren't allowed to sell in other cities. And you told me he wasn't from NY."

"Finally, some help. Yeah, he arrived about one week before his death."

"You're welcome, detective."

"What about warrants?"

"We'll have them in half an hour from now", Bennett said.

"Okay, when we receive them, you and Nikki will check the 4 stars, me and Vause will take the motel. It will be better this way."

After half an hour Piper wished her partners luck and drove to the motel with Alex.

"So, detective. You've got any theories?"

"I don't like to make theories when I know so little about the case."

"Come on. Isn't it the most interesting part? You have an opportunity to test your intuition, your predicting skills."

"It's not a game, Vause. It's my job. The man was killed."

"Exactly, he was killed. So why do you need to remember yourself that every single moment? You've got a very hard job, you need to distract sometimes from all this chaos."

She had a point, Piper gave her that, but still she Alex's wasn't a person to have a friendly talk with.

"What do you know about my job? You know nothing about life difficulties. You had everything. Money, wealthy life, so on, so on."

Alex sneered, "No, it's you who know nothing about me and life difficulties. You don't know me at all."

It was strange, Piper even thought for a minute that she offended the woman, but with the way she behaved it was really hard to say. Maybe it was only self-defense, but Piper preferred to believe that it was Alex's true face. She threw Alex out of her head as they finally arrived at the place.

"Get out, we're here."

They got out of the car and entered the motel. There was an old woman on reception. And she was… Sleeping? What a beautiful motel.

"How can I help you?" She asked slowly. "A room for two of you or just individual ones?"

"Oh, we want a single one, with a double bad, please", Alex said chuckling.

"I'll kill you one day", Piper snorted at her. "Hello, my name is detective Chapman, we need to search a room where Mr. Raymond was staying, one of your clients" she showed the woman her badge and the warrant, but old lady didn't even blink.  
"Go on", was all she answered.

"Uh… We kind of need a key and the number of a room."

Woman looked through some papers and after 5 minutes put a key on the table and without any word continued to doze. Piper took the key.

"Okaaay. That was odd."

"What did you expect from a place like this? All they care about is rent, other things aren't their business. Let's go?"

"Yeah… It says №202 on the key, so it's on the second floor, come on."

They made their way up the stairs, found the room and opened the door with the key. The room wasn't that bad. It was uncomfortable, filthy and cheap, but Piper saw places which were much worse.

"It doesn't look like junkie residence, it's even acceptable for a living" Piper said more to herself looking around.

"That's the point."

"I don't understand."

"It wasn't his place of work. I mean, maybe he had some clients in there, but not much and you won't rent a room, if there's only 2 or 3 clients. It's just a waste of time."

"Let's look around, maybe we'll find something."

"Don't I need gloves or something to help you?"

"I was figurative. Don't touch anything. I'll do my job by myself."

"Come on, Pipes. We're together in it, you need to trust me eventually."

"No, I don't. I'll crack the case, you'll be back to DEA, everyone will be happy", Piper put on the gloves and started to search the room.

"What's your problem, blondie?"

"Except you being a pain in my ass, everything is perfect."

"I mean it, why don't you want to cooperate?"

"You're a criminal."

"A former criminal."

"That doesn't change anyth…"

"What, you're out of your words? That's strange, because you always have them when you talk about how horrible I am."

"No, I think I found something", Piper drugged a metal brief case from under the bed. "Great, it's closed and on the password. We need to get back to the station to open it. I don't think I'll find something more here. Maybe Bennett and Nichols were luckier."

"I can open it", Alex said.

"What?"

"What 'what'? You heard me, I can open it."

"I thought you were a drug dealer, not a burglar."

"Give me that."

"No way, it's illegal."

"How can it be illegal? If you keep your cute little mouth shut, no one will ever know. Besides, it was you who wanted me to be helpful."

Piper was in doubts. It wasn't something terrible, if Alex could open the brief case, she was intrigued by its contents to be truthful, but she didn't trust this self-assured woman.

"Give. Me. That", Alex repeated. Piper gave her the case almost without thinking the things over. Curiosity prevailed over common sense.

Alex cracked it open in a minute which made quite an impression on Piper.

"Where did you learn to do this?"

"I tell you as soon as you'll start to trust me."

Piper hid her smile. Despite the fact that this woman was insufferable, she was quite interesting person. She was good educated and well-read. Maybe Piper should treat her more gentle… Ah, why the fuck she should do that? Bullshit. Piper sat down on the bed where Alex was sitting with the brief case on her lap. They slowly opened it.

"Oh really, how ordinary. I expected to find information about World War IV or something about aliens. And this is just a laptop."

"Maybe you'll find something like that in its documents."

"Oh, trying to sound funny? It's a good start."

Piper drew her eyes aside from Alex's and opened the laptop.

"Shit. It's on the password too! I won't be surprised this is really about aliens after all."

"Let me."

"What, you can do that too?"

"Kind of…"

It took Alex 15 minutes this time to hack the laptop.

"Bingo."

Piper took the laptop from Vause and started to look through the Word files on the desktop.

"What a mess… There is an amount of different letters and numbers in the files. It makes no sense."

"For now. May I?"

Piper handed the laptop back to Alex.

"Look, there's a file with names of different TV Shows. Your victim is a fangirl, what an irony", Alex laughed.

"Told you, makes no sense."

"No, wait. I think I may know what is it."

"Yeah?"

"In drug dealing you need to be careful, so some people encode names of important wealthy clients or members of the Cartel, the time of supplies and things like that."

"I thought the victim was just a small fry."

"I thought that too. If I'm right, this guy either stole these codes from some dangerous people for God knows why…"

"Or he wasn't as simple as he seemed", Piper finished Alex's suggestion. "Alright, let's go back to the station, I'll hand the computer to our specialists, let's hope they'll be able to crack the codes."

"It will be really hard. Listen…"

"Yes?"

"Can I copy the files?"

"Are you insane?"

"What? I'm part of your team now. Seriously, trust me. I can help with that."

Piper stood up from the bed and started to pace along the room. She wanted to solve this case as soon as possible. It seemed like Vause knew what to do with files. But what if she was still in business? For God's sake, Chapman, you're paranoid.

"Come on, sunshine, this is the perfect time to start building our trust."

"Okay, copy it and be fast, please."

"I prefer to extend the pleasure, but if you want to do it fast…"

Great, a sex joke again, she hated it. She hated that the woman thought she was interested in her sexually. Yeah, she was attractive and stuff… But no. Definitely no. Ten times no. Not with Vause. Yes. She wasn't interested, she hated her.

"You done?"

"Yeah, we can go."

"I'll drop you to your apartment, it's almost end of the work day."

"You're the boss."

They drove all the way to Vause's apartment almost in silence. There was tension between them. Piper started to get used to have this irritable consultant by her side, but Alex was right, there was no trust and it complicated things.

"I'll see you tomorrow, same time."

"Have a nice evening, Pipes", Alex left the car before Piper could protest against Alex calling her that.

She made her way back to the precinct, gave some instructions about the laptop to the specialists and went to her office to learn something new from her partners.

"You found anything?"

"Not really", John replied. "It was like he barely lived there. No documents, no clothes or bags. What about you?"

"We've found a laptop, hope to discover something on it. What about any other leads?"

"We're trying to figure out where he had actually lived before he arrived in NY, but not so much luck so far", Nikki told her.

What a shitty case Piper thought to herself. She hoped to solve it in a week, but now it seemed like some unreal dream.

She left the precinct and went home. She was exhausted as she didn't get much sleep lately. Her life became a mess. She couldn't work with someone who wasn't willing to help, who did this only because it was saving her from being in prison.

Piper had a light dinner, did a paper work for some time and went to get a rest. Surprisingly, she fell asleep almost immediately only to be woken up by a phone call around 3 in the morning.

"What the fuck…" She mumbled.

She picked up not even looking at the name of the caller as her eyes were still sleepy.

"Hello?"

"Rise and shine, detective!"

Piper dropped her head on the pillow with a sigh of irritation.

"It's 3 in the morning, Vause. What do you want?"

"Exactly, in the morning, so time to get up. I think I may have something."

"Wut?"

"The codes, I think I cracked one of them partially."

"You were trying to crack the codes all night long?"

"Kinda. Just wanted you to know, you said it was important for you to solve this case as soon as possible."

Maybe she wasn't such a bad person after all, Piper thought getting up from the bed excited as hell.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, why don't you tell me, what you've found?" Piper asked Alex on the phone.

"Ah, it's not that simple, sleepy beauty. I can't just explain to you this fucked up codes, I don't fully understand it myself."

"And what do you suggest then, criminal mind?"

"Dunno, come around, see yourself?"

"As to your apartment?"

"Yeah, why not?"

"Uh, we're not so close to do such a thing? I mean, you know I kinda hate you."

"Can you just stop? No, if you have strength in you to wait until morning, it's your choice…"

"I'll be there in 30."

"That's what I thought."

Unbearable woman. Piper didn't remember how many times she had already told herself that during last few days. Alex Vause was exact antithesis of Piper, she was all she didn't like about people and she was all she sometimes wanted to be herself. And the fact that Alex was attractive as fuck wasn't helping at all. Piper sometimes caught herself thinking that it was alike typical college situation: you have a crush on a popular guy, but he's a complete jerk. She hated these thoughts, because she wanted to hate Vause, not to fall for her. She was a criminal and she was definitely a jerk. Fuck. They say extremes always meet, and that what scared detective Chapman the most.

Piper tried to calm herself with a fact that she just hadn't been in a serious relationship for a long time and it was a simple sign to start one. Not with Vause of course. Piper took a quick shower, dressed as fast as she could and made her way to Alex's apartment.

"You're late", Alex greeted her opening the door.

"Sorry", Piper answered sarcastically.

Her apartment wasn't what Piper expected to see. She thought it would be a huge flat with at least three rooms. But it was more like a studio, one big room with everything in it: kitchen, bed, dining space and so on. And there was very beautiful balcony which led to the roof as Alex lived on the last floor.

"Wow", flew out Piper's mouth.

"Hm?" Alex didn't understand at first what Piper meant to say. "Oh, you liked my little nest?"

"It's fantastic."

Alex smiled at that with a strange expression. No, it wasn't strange to see a sincere smile, but from Vause to Piper? Weird.

"Come on, have a seat, I'll bring the laptop with what I've discovered. Do you need something? Water, wine?"

"Wine? I have to go on duty in 3 hours from now."

"Right. I forgot you're so orderly."

"I'm a cop!"

Alex chuckled at that and left to grab her laptop. After a few minutes she sat on the couch next to Piper with opened laptop.

"So, here's the thing I've managed to decipher only one file so far and as I thought it's a list of names. And it's definitely not drug dealers' names."

"Why are you so sure?"

"I don't claim I know everybody who runs this business, but let's say, someone checked the names out for me."

"What the hell? You gave the evidence to someone on the side?!"

"Easy, don't yell, I'm not such an idiot. Again, my source just checked out the names."

"Great."

"Really, calm down. Anyway, I've found a gap, so it would be easier to crack other files."

"Pf, I'm fine. Give me the list of names, I'll run them through our base at the precinct. So, you have any theories so far about all of that?"

"Why, detective, I thought you didn't like early theories."

"I don't like to build them, but I'll gladly listen to yours."

"I'm not so sure yet, but most likely this guy got tired of his low position, didn't manage to quit and find another job, so he decided to start his own business from inside. Maybe he was selling information on the cartel, maybe he was selling their drugs to his own clients. Whatever it was, seems like he fucked up, his cover was blown, two shots in the chest, death."

Shit, that was hell of a theory. Vause was quite smart for a consultant who wasn't very experienced in this position. With every word Piper felt she might be wrong about her. No, it didn't mean she stopped thinking she was a jerk. But she was eager to help, she cared. Maybe she wanted to change, who knew.

"Hm, impressive", Piper admired.

"You're trying to make fun of me or what? Is it some kind of revenge?"

"No, I mean it, great job."

Alex didn't answer but sent Piper this strange smile again.

"Ugh, I think… If you know how to encode the other documents, it will be better to keep working. You can stay home today so not to waste any time. I'll go to the precinct now and come back to check on you in the evening, if you don't mind."

"You're my boss, remember? You can check on me anytime you want."

"Right, I better get going then."

Piper felt oddly uncomfortable. She didn't know why, Alex was too sweet, too kind, it wasn't her usual behavior and this fact unsettled Piper.

"Come on, it's 4 in the morning. As I raised you from the bed, you can stay, do whatever you want."

Again! She expected Alex to kick her out of the apartment and slam the door after her, not to invite to stay. Dammit.

"Ah, okay. I want to know then."

"To know what, detective?"

"More about you. Why did you become a dealer?"

"Don't you think this question is too delicate for the starters?"

"You told me that I need to trust you. Then show me. Show me I can."

Alex looked Piper in the eyes and she shuddered. Her eyes were magnificent indeed, so deep. You might think she could see your soul with them, to read all of your thoughts. Alex took a deep breath and put the laptop aside.

"It's very smart move, I give you that. Okay, as you took me at my word, I would tell you. But please, no judgement, no brainwashing or something like that. No comments at all."

"Pinky promise."

"You're laughing at me."

"No, I'm shutting up and listening."

"Well, I was raised by my mother, we were poor and life was a disaster. She died when I was 18…"

"Alex, I…"

"Don't. Just listen. She died and I tried to find my father. It wasn't very hard as he was quite a famous musician in his early ages. But when I found him, he was a mess. He was disgusting, he was drunk and obnoxious. He wasn't the man I was expected to see at all. He was on drugs and I met his dealer that day, I don't know why but he made me an offer that day. I was lost, I was all alone so I accepted it. I had got a dream life: I was reach, I had an opportunity to travel a lot, I was happy. At least for some time. That's all I can tell you for now. I don't want to dive in the memories."

They sat in silence for some time. Piper felt that the only jerk in this room was her. She had no right to treat Alex like this not knowing her story. She was right, she didn't know her at all. It all made sense know, woman's behavior and her imaginary wall from reality. Piper now saw a different person sitting next to her, a strong woman with tough life. If only she knew all of that the day they met, Piper wouldn't behave so stupid. But, it is always better now or never, so she decided she would be able to change things between them.

"So why did you decide to quit and surrender?" Piper asked in low voice finally.

"I'll tell you that next time, okay Pipes?"

Piper smiled for the first time after she heard Alex calling her that. It was cute in fact. And after their conversation she didn't mind anymore. It was clear Alex was upset a little bit after telling Piper the part of her story, but she promised not to comment on it, so she just nodded.

"You want something to eat? I bet you didn't have time for that this as called morning."

"Yeah, I'd like to."

"Bacon and eggs is okay with you?"

"Of course", Piper smiled lightly at the woman.

"I didn't know you can be so domestic", Piper said as Alex put a plate with the breakfast in front of her.

"Shut up and eat, sweetheart, you'll be late for work."

"Shit!" Piper cursed after looking at the clock.

She ate quickly, grabbed the list of names and headed to the entrance of the apartment, Alex followed her.

"Thanks again, you've done a great work. And I'm really sorry. I was a jerk."

"Yeah, well and I'm still a jerk so get out."

"Very funny."

"Go, you'll be late."

"Right, bye. Catch you later."

Things were getting better. Vause wasn't so unbearable anymore, they even could be good partners if Alex would stop to throw sex jokes anytime they were together. Her work wasn't a complete disaster anymore. It was a progress. She arrived at the station and started to work on Alex's list of names. Soon enough Nikki and John joined her and things went a bit faster.

"They're all bigwigs", Nikki concluded.

"Yeah… Looks like Alex was right, our vic was selling to his own clients."

"Alex, huh?"

"What?"

"You called her Alex."

"So?"

"You usually say Vause or 'that pain in the ass'."

"Meaning?"

"You don't hate her anymore."

"Maybe. I haven't decided yet. Have our specialists figured something out from the victim's laptop?"

"Not as much as 'Alex'."

"Stop it."

"Yeah, yeah. Any news from Polly?"

"She don't think she will be able to tell us something better than 'it was 9mm caliber'. Damn professional killer."

"So, this list is all that we've got."

"Yep. I think we can start to bring them in, maybe we'll drag something from one of them before their freaking lawyers show up and tell us to fuck off."

"Let's try."

They interrogated 9 of the 20 people on the list till the end of the day and things weren't very promising. All of them mostly were wealthy young people or businessmen, who denied that they used drugs or saw Tom Raymond before. Piper wasn't surprised.

"I hate this case already. Take the files with their cases, try to find something strange. Maybe some of them were charged before. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Night, boss."

Piper took copies of the cases with her and went to Alex. It was almost midnight but she was sure Vause was still awake. Besides, she promised to check on her. She went up to the last floor and knocked on the door.

"Look who's here, my favorite detective. Come on in. How was your day?"

"Not so great. We questioned some of the people on the list and the progress is 0%. What about you?"

"A few more hours of work and we'll have another list. This time list of places I suppose."

"Fuck."

"Don't you worry, we'll solve it."

"I hope so. I need to get rid of you after all."

"Funny. You're funny blondie."

"I try my best. Anyway, as there's nothing new, I should go."

"It's late, you can stay."

"What? All night you mean?"

"Why not? Something's telling me, you're not going to sleep. And I won't need to call you in the middle of the night to report you new details."

"Okay, you win. But I need to eat again."

"Are you fucking kidding me? I'm not your wife."

"Exactly, but it's not preventing you from making sex jokes!"

"So you've noticed", Alex grinned.

"That's not the point."

"Of course it isn't. Check out the fridge, there should be something to eat."

"I liked you more when you were domestic?"

"I was out of my mind, now go."

"Oh, and you promised me to tell the next part of your story by the way."

"Bullshit. I don't know what you are talking about."

"But…"

"Eat, then work. Don't mess with me."

Well, it was going to be hell of a night.

**Review, please. And thanks for the previous ones. ^^ I'm not sure it's going very well. I feel like it's not intriguing at all. :D But I hope you like it anyway.**


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